Noah: Parasha & Haftara
Summary of the Parasha
Parashat Noach opens with the presentation of Noah as a man who is "righteous and wholehearted in his generation". As corruption and violence filled the earth, God decides to destroy all life with a flood. He commands Noah to build an ark to save his family and a pair of each animal species (and seven pairs of pure animals). After 120 years of construction, the rain falls for forty days and forty nights, and the waters cover the earth for one hundred and fifty days before beginning to recede. After a long drying process, Noah leaves the ark, 365 days after the beginning of the Flood, offers a sacrifice, and God promises to never again destroy the world in this manner. He establishes a covenant with Noah, the visible sign of which is the rainbow. Later, Noah plants a vineyard, becomes drunk, and a disturbing episode occurs between him and his sons: he is naked and his two sons Shem and Yafeth zealously cover him, thus earning a blessing each, while Ham and his son Canaan are cursed.
The Torah then lists the seventy nations descended from his sons, giving us a preconfiguration of the entire world, and then recounts the episode of the Tower of Babel: mankind, united by a single language, wants to build a tower to "make a name for themselves," but God confounds their language and scatters them. The parasha concludes with the genealogy from Shem to Terach, father of Avram (Abraham), introducing the next stage of biblical history.
Summary of the Haftara
"Roni 'Akara" ("Sing, O barren one [Jerusalem]")
Text in Isaiah (Yeshaya): 54:1–10 for Sephardim and 54:1–55:5 for Ashkenazim
The Haftara is found in the Book of Isaiah (Yeshaya), covering the period of 3140-3228 (or -620/-532), which is about 700 years after the Exodus from Egypt and 200 years after King David.
The Haftara begins with words of consolation addressed to Jerusalem, compared to a barren woman who will bear more children than she who had children. God promises that the period of loneliness and exile is only temporary, and that a bright future awaits her. He compares His anger to that during the "waters of Noah", but swears that He will never again reject His people. Jerusalem is described as a rebuilt city, sparkling with precious stones, whose children will be taught by God Himself. God calls His people to nourish themselves spiritually without paying: "Come buy without money and without price, wine and milk." He thus renews His eternal covenant with David, promising that the nation will become a witness for the peoples.
Although the destruction of the First Temple had not yet taken place, this prophecy already announces a future restoration after the exile, and a renewed link with the Davidic royalty.
Parasha-Haftara Connection
The Haftara explicitly references the "waters of Noah" to illustrate God's passing anger, now replaced by a promise of eternal love for Israel. Just as God swore, after the flood, to never again destroy the earth, He affirms through the prophet Isaiah that He will never again reject His people despite their faults. Thus, both texts share the central theme of a severe judgment followed by a covenant, with a strong divine symbol (the rainbow in the parasha, the restoration of Jerusalem in the Haftara). Both express God's faithfulness to His commitments and the hope of renewal after destruction.